JP3472685B2 - Semiconductor wafer storage container - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wafer container used for transporting and storing a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as "wafer"), and more specifically to transporting, storing and taking out wafers. The present invention relates to a wafer storage container which is improved to be suitable for work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a container used for transporting and storing wafers, a container described in USP 4,787,508 is conventionally known. As shown in FIG. 7, this wafer storage container has a bottomed cylindrical container main body a capable of accommodating a large number of disk-shaped wafers and a cylindrical part c covering the outer periphery of the cylindrical part b of the container main body a. And a lid d having. Here, a male screw f is provided on the upper surface of the bottom e of the container body a, and a lid d
A female screw g corresponding to the male screw f is provided on the inner surface of the tip of the cylindrical portion c, and the container body a and the lid d can be attached and detached by the screw fitting of the both. Then, a non-slip knurl consisting of continuous streaky irregularities is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the bottom e of the container body a,
A circular attachment / detachment convex portion h having a similar knurl formed on the outer peripheral surface is provided on the upper surface of the lid body d, and is configured to facilitate the attachment / detachment.

Further, in such a conventional wafer storage container, a plurality of slits i for opening to the atmosphere are provided in the cylindrical portion b of the container main body a, and the wafers are stored in the cylindrical portion b. Can be taken out by vacuum suction or the like. Furthermore, on the upper surface of the lid d,
A ring-shaped protrusion j is formed around the attaching / detaching convex portion h,
By fitting the outer peripheral surface to the lower surface side of the bottom e of the other container body a, a large number of wafer storage containers can be vertically stacked and integrated with each other.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional wafer storage container, since the peripheral surface of the lid body d is circular and it rolls when placed horizontally, the wafer must be placed vertically when it is transported or stored. Absent.

Further, since the container body a and the lid body d are attached and detached by the screw fitting of the male screw f on the container body a side and the female screw g on the lid body d side, it is necessary to rotate them both by at least 360 °. There is a problem, and the attaching and detaching work is troublesome. Moreover, the outer peripheral surface of the bottom e of the container body a having the knurls provided for this attachment / detachment work has a diameter of, for example, 150 mm, and is usually of a size that cannot be gripped by an operator.
From this point as well, the work of attaching and detaching the container body a and the lid d is troublesome. For this reason, when the lid body d is removed from the container body a, the wafer storage container must be lifted in the air and the lid body d must be rotated with respect to the container body a so as to hold the entire wafer. There is a problem that the wafer is exposed to a risk of dropping due to a work mistake.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and provides a wafer storage container which can be placed vertically and horizontally and can be attached and detached between the container body and the lid quickly and easily. The purpose is to do.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the wafer container of the present invention has a bottomed cylindrical conductive or antistatic structure that can store a large number of disk-shaped wafers in a stack.
And a conductive or antistatic lid having a tubular portion that covers the outer circumference of the cylindrical portion of the container body. The bottom of the container body has a square shape, and the tubular portion of the lid has a regular square prism shape. The lid body is configured to cover the container body, leaving the bottom portion of the container body, and the bottom surface of the container body and the top surface of the lid body can be fitted to each other. four corners
Creates a space between the cylindrical part of the container body and the cylindrical part of the lid.
Preferably .

It should be noted that the top surface of the lid and the bottom surface of the lower part of the container body can be provided with an attachment / detachment uneven portion or the like for facilitating the attachment / detachment work of the lid body and the container body. Knurls can be formed on the. Further, the uneven portion may be configured so that they can be fitted to each other,
Separately from this, it is also possible to provide an uneven portion that can be fitted to each other on the bottom bottom surface of the container body and the top surface of the lid body.

[0009]

In the wafer storage container according to the present invention which employs such means, since the cylindrical portion of the lid which covers the container body is in the shape of a regular square pole, it is needless to say that it is placed vertically as in the prior art.
Since it can be placed horizontally, it is possible to transport and store a large number of storage containers in a stable state.

[0010] the bottom of the container body is configured in a square shape
Because, the corner portion of the container body bottom pinching with one hand, Ri Do it easy to rotate the lid with the other hand, as in the conventional lift the wafer storage container into the air, so that hug the entire Even if the lid d is not rotated with respect to the container main body a, with the storage container placed on a table or the like,
It is possible to remove the lid from the container body.

If the attachment / detachment concave / convex portion is provided on the upper surface of the lid, it becomes easier to remove the lid. Of course, the wafer storage container can be lifted in the air to remove the lid, and in this case, the container body having the attachment / detachment uneven portion formed on the lower bottom surface is preferably used.

In the case where the bottom surface of the bottom of the container body and the top surface of the lid are provided with the concavo-convex portions that can be fitted to each other, a large number of wafer storage containers are stacked on each other in the vertical direction or in the horizontal direction. It can be connected and integrated. The fitting concave and convex portion on the upper surface of the lid can be shared with the concave and convex portion for attaching and detaching provided on the upper surface of the lid portion, and the concave and convex portion for fitting provided on the lower surface of the bottom of the container body is used as the concave and convex portion for attaching and detaching. You can also do it.

[0013]

1 to 3 are views showing an embodiment of a wafer container according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure as a partial cross section, and FIG. 2 is also a half cross section. 2 is a plan view and FIG. 3 is a side view (FIG. 2).
It is a U arrow view in FIG. 1 to 3, the wafer storage container 1 is a disk-shaped wafer (not shown) (not shown).
There are sizes such as inches, 6 inches, and 8 inches, but in the present embodiment, for example, 6 inches are used.) A container body 2 having a bottomed cylindrical shape capable of accommodating a large number of sheets and a container body 2
It is composed of a lid body 3 which is put on.

The container body 2 is formed by projecting a cylindrical portion 2b on a square-shaped base portion 2a. The cylindrical portion 2b has a cylindrical portion 2b.
Slits 2c having a predetermined width extending from the tip to the base end are formed at positions equidistantly arranged in the circumferential direction. Usually, the length of one side of the square is the same as the length of the side of the rectangular tube portion 3a described later.

Although the base portion 2a can be formed in a circular shape as shown in FIG. 4, in the present invention, it is formed in a square shape as shown in FIGS . Thus, sandwiching the corner portion of the bottom portion of the container body a with one hand, since it is easy to rotate the lid with the other hand, performs the removal of the lid by lifting the wafer storage container into the air, There is no need for such work. In addition, in FIG. 4, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS.

On the other hand, the lid 3 is in the form of a regular square pole as a whole, and has a cylindrical portion 3a and a rectangular tubular portion 3 circumscribing the cylindrical portion 3a.
and b. The cylindrical portion 3a covers the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2, and the lower end portion covers the base portion 2a of the container body 2 while leaving a part thereof. The cylindrical portion 3a is
Although not essential in the container of the present invention, in the present example,
The cylindrical portion 3a is used for attaching and detaching the lid body 3 and the container body 2.
It plays a role as a guide.

As shown in FIG. 3, on the upper surface of the lid body 3,
Removable protrusions 3c each having a circular trapezoidal protrusion are formed. The attaching / detaching convex portion 3c has a diameter of about 100 mm so that a worker can grasp it, and a knurl 2d for preventing slippage is formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof. Further, on the upper surface of the lid body 3, a ring-shaped projection 3d is formed in a concentric circle around the attachment / detachment convex portion 3c with a predetermined gap. Corresponding to this, the base portion 2a of the container body 2
An outer peripheral wall 2e with which the outer peripheral surface of the ring-shaped projection 3d is fitted is formed on the lower surface of the, and a large number of wafer storage containers 1 are stacked vertically with each other or are connected in the horizontal direction with these. The concavo-convex portion to be integrated is configured.

The upper surface of the base 2a of the container body 2 (inner surface on the container side) has a concavo-convex shape in which a plurality of concentric reinforcing ribs are projected, and the upper ends of these are located on the same surface, so that the wafer It can be placed horizontally. Further, the inner surface of the lid body 3 facing the upper surface of the base portion 2a is also similarly configured.

The means for attaching / detaching the container body 2 and the lid 3 according to the present invention is not particularly limited, and various types can be used. For example, an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of FIG. 5 and a similar cross-sectional view of FIG. 6 (FIG. 5). (A cross-sectional view of the V arrow), there is a partial screw or the like formed between the outer surface of the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2 and the inner surface of the cylindrical portion 3a of the lid 3. This partial screw has a length of about 20 mm and a width of about 2 mm as a partial male screw at the widthwise central portion of the outer peripheral surface upper end portion in each portion of the cylindrical portion 2 b divided into four by the slit 2 c of the container body 2. The ridges 2f are each provided with a right-hand thread lead angle of about 6.5 °.

On the other hand, at the upper end of the cylindrical portion 3a of the lid body 3,
A small diameter portion 3e into which the upper end of the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2 is fitted is formed via a stepped portion 3f, and the inner peripheral surface of the small diameter portion 3e is a portion where the four projecting ridges 2f are fitted respectively. Four inclined grooves 3g each having a length of about 65 mm as a female screw are formed at positions equidistantly arranged in the circumferential direction. The lower end of each inclined groove 3g is continuous with the projecting body introducing port 3h having a circumferential length of about 25 mm, which is opened in the step 3f, and the projecting strip body introduced into the projecting strip introducing port 3h. 2f is about 9 mm in the height direction of the wafer storage container 1 along the inclined groove 3g by the relative rotation of the container body 2 and the lid body 3 by about 30 °.
It is designed to move.

As for the partial screw, a protrusion is provided on the outer lower end portion of the cylindrical portion of the lid body 3, and the projecting ridge body is provided on the inner lower end portion of the container body.
Although a female screw portion shown in FIG. 6 may be formed, when a container of the present invention is molded by a mold, a slide mold is used. Is more advantageous because the mold is not complicated.

The reference numeral 3i in FIG. 5 indicates the container body 2.
2 are arcuate projections 3i projectingly provided on the inner surface of the lid body 3 so as to guide the inner peripheral surface of the upper end portion of the cylindrical portion 2b, and are provided equidistantly in the circumferential direction as shown in FIG. . The container body 2 and the lid 3 of the wafer container 1 having such a structure are made of conductive plastic or antistatic plastic.
Using the click. In this example, conductive fillers conductive plastics were added or by using the polymer alloy treated conductive plastics, it is integrally molded. As the conductive filler to be added, carbon black, graphite carbon, graphite, carbon fiber, metal powder, metal fiber, metal oxide powder, metal-coated inorganic fine powder, organic fine powder and fiber can be used.

Next, the operation of the wafer container 1 will be described. First, when carrying or storing a wafer, the wafer is stored in the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2. At that time, when a large number of wafers are stored, it is preferable to interpose a cushion sheet and a conductive sheet for each predetermined number of wafers. If there is a gap on the accommodated wafer, a cushion sheet having a proper thickness is placed to prevent the wafer from dancing, and in this state, the container body 2 is covered with the lid 3 and assembled.

Here, in the assembling work of the lid body 3 to the container body 2, first, the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2 is covered with the cylindrical portion 3a of the lid body 3 and each of the openings at the stepped portion 3f on the inner surface of the upper end thereof is opened. The ridge body introduction port 3h is connected to each ridge body 2 at the upper end of the cylindrical portion 2b.
It is made to match with f, and both are relatively rotated in the right-hand screw direction. This work can be performed with the container main body 2 placed on a flat place such as a table, or the attaching / detaching convex portion 3 of the lid body 3 can be performed.
It is also possible to carry out by gripping c and the lower side surface of the container body 2 with both hands. Since the base portion 2a of the container main body 2 is a square shape, by pressing the corners of the square with one hand, can the fixed container body 2 on a table or the like, more rapidly and easily performed that the work You can In addition, when the lid 3 covers the entire container body 2, that is, when the operator cannot hold the lower side surface of the container body 2, the bottom surface of the container body is also detachable. A convex portion may be provided (may be shared with the fitting concave and convex portion).

Due to the relative rotation, each ridge 2f moves from the ridge introduction port 3h along the inclined groove 3g in the height direction of the wafer storage container 1 by about 9 mm. This movement is 30 °
The lid body 3 for the container body 2 is carried out with a certain degree of rotation.
The assembling work of is completed. The width of the tip of the inclined groove 3g is
By taking measures such as making the width of the ridge body 2f the same,
It is also possible to enhance the strength of assembly.

The operation of removing the lid 3 from the container body 2 in order to take out the wafer in the storage container 1 is performed in the reverse order of the above. In this way, the work of attaching and detaching the container body 2 and the lid body 3 can be performed extremely quickly and easily.

The storage container 1 in which the wafers are stored can be placed vertically with the base 2a of the container main body 2 facing downward, and the rectangular cylindrical portion 3b of the lid 3 makes the peripheral surface quadrangular. It is also possible to place the square tube portion 3b horizontally with one surface thereof facing down. The storage container 1 that stores a large number of wafers is
In some cases it may be preferable to place it horizontally. Since each wafer is held in a vertical posture by horizontally placing it, it is possible to prevent the wafers from being broken when a large number of wafers are stacked in a horizontal posture.

Since the wafer storage container 1 can be placed vertically or horizontally in this way, when it is stored in a dedicated box or the like during transportation, it can be stored without gaps by arbitrarily combining vertical or horizontal placement. The storage space can be used effectively. Further, when a large number of wafer storage containers 1 are placed vertically (or horizontally), the ring-shaped protrusion 3d formed on the lid 3 of the wafer storage container 1 located below (or adjacent to) the top (or adjacent). ), The outer peripheral wall 2e formed on the container body 2 of the wafer storage container 1 is fitted to stack a large number of wafer storage containers 1 in the vertical direction (or connected in the horizontal direction). Can be integrated.

To take out the wafer stored in the wafer container 1, the lid 3 is removed from the container body 2 as described above, and the wafer is taken out from the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2 using an appropriate suction tool. . In this case, since the cylindrical portion 2b of the container body 2 is formed with the slit 2c for opening to the atmosphere having a predetermined width from the tip portion to the base end portion, the wafer can be easily and reliably taken out without being damaged.

Further, since the container body 2 and the lid 3 of the wafer storage container 1 are made of conductive plastics, it is easy to remove the charged static electricity. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the stored wafer from being damaged by the electrostatic shock.

In the above embodiment, the container body 2 and the lid 3 of the wafer container 1 are made of conductive plastics.
However, it may be integrally formed by using an antistatic plastics mixed with an antistatic agent as a material. Examples of the antistatic agent include nonionic surfactants such as polyethylene glycol fatty acid esters and polyhydric alcohol fatty acid esters, cationic surfactants such as quaternary ammonium salts, higher alcohol phosphate ester salts and higher alcohol sulfuric acid. Anionic surface active agents such as ester salts, amphoteric surface active agents such as alkyl betaines and any combination thereof may be used as an antistatic agent, which is generally kneaded or applied to synthetic resin. Anything can be used.

When the conventional wafer storage container as shown in FIG. 7 is manufactured by injection molding, a step of twisting the molded product and releasing it from the mold is required. On the other hand, since the wafer storage container of the present invention uses the partial screw,
Since the above steps are not required, the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the peripheral surface of the lid for covering the container body is quadrangular, it goes without saying that the wafer storage container can be placed vertically as in the conventional case.
It can be placed horizontally. Thus, when a large number of wafers are stored, the wafer storage container can be placed horizontally and each wafer can be held in a vertical posture. Therefore,
It is possible to prevent the destruction of the wafers that occurs when a large number of wafers are stacked in a horizontal posture. Also,
When storing the wafer storage container in a special box during transportation,
By vertically or horizontally combining any combination, they can be stored without gaps and the storage space can be effectively utilized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a partial cross section of the overall structure of an embodiment of a wafer container according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the wafer container of FIG. 1 as a half section.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing the wafer storage container of FIG. 1 as a half section.

4 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure of the wafer container for reference as part cross-section.

5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of essential parts of the wafer storage container shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view on arrow V in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view showing the entire structure of a conventional wafer storage container as a partial cross section.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Wafer storage container 2 container body 2a base 2b cylindrical part 2c slit 2d removable knurl 2e Outer wall 2f ridge 3 lid 3a cylindrical part 3b Square tube 3c Detachable protrusion 3d ring-shaped protrusion 3e Small diameter part 3f step 3g inclined groove 3h ridge introduction port 3i arc-shaped protrusion

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page       (56) Reference JP-A-3-228349 (JP, A)                 Actual Kaihei 1-63138 (JP, U)                 62-188444 (JP, U)                 59-191339 (JP, U)                 Actual Kaihei 1-169034 (JP, U)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A conductive having a disk-shaped large number of semiconductor wafers Again retractable bottomed cylindrical conductive or antistatic container body, the tubular portion that covers the cylindrical outer periphery of the container body
A container for storing a semiconductor wafer, which is composed of an antistatic or antistatic lid, in which the bottom of the container body is square, the tubular part of the lid is square prism-shaped, and the lid is the container body. A semiconductor wafer storage container, characterized in that the bottom part of the container is covered and the bottom surface of the container body and the top surface of the lid can be fitted to each other. 2. At the four corners of the lid, the cylindrical part of the container body and the lid
It is characterized in that a space is formed between it and the cylindrical portion of
The semiconductor wafer storage container according to claim 1.